First of all, Senator Bob Menendez might not even be indicted. Leaks out of the Justice Department have been notoriously unreliable since Chris Christie resigned as U.S. Attorney in 2008.

If Menendez is indicted, he probably will not resign. In his press conference this evening, the Senator defiantly insisted on the “appropriateness and lawfulness” of his relationship with Dr. Salomon Melgen, the Florida ophthalmologist who is Menendez’s friend and benefactor. He declared that he is not going anywhere.

If, as CNN speculates, Menendez is charged with corruption this month, it could be Halloween before he goes to trial. Former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell was indicted in January of 2014. His trial didn’t start until late July and didn’t end to early September. Unless Menendez makes a deal to avoid prosecution that includes his resignation, there is not likely to be a Special Election to fill the Senate seat until next year….2016, the year of the next presidential election.

If Chris Christie is still Governor in 2016 and Menendez’s seat becomes vacant, he will get to choose the next Senator and set the date a special election. There could be a mid-year Special Election or the Special Election could be on the same day as the presidential election. There’s no way to know now what is likely to happen.

Still, the prospect of a Senatorial vacancy stirs speculation and the phone lines among both Democrats and Republicans have been burning this afternoon since the news of the possible prosecution broke.

WASHINGTON — New Jersey voters gave Sen. Cory Booker six years to show what he means about finding bipartisan solutions Tuesday, re-electing the Democrat easily over Republican Jeff Bell, a staunch conservative who struggled to raise money and get his ideas before voters. Booker, 45, led in polls throughout the campaign and, with the approval rating… Read the rest of this entry »

Nuzzi, a Middletown native who interned for Vin Gopal’s 2011 Assembly race and wrote for MMM and the triCityNews before emerging as a nationally prominent political reporter, while helping to bring down Andrew Wiener along the way, has grown into a unique story teller with a commitment to telling the truth regardless of the political fallout.

The political landscape in New Jersey is ripe for a historic shift this November. But a shift in New Jersey’s representation in Washington is not likely to happen because the New Jersey Republican Party is wholly unprepared for the opportunity. The nincompoops who lead the NJGOP gave up on the U.S. Senate race in January. They gave up on picking up seats in the Congressional Delegation in 2012 when the new congressional map was drawn.

According to a Fairleigh Dickinson Univeristy Public Mind Poll released this morning, President Barack Obama’s approval rating among New Jersey registered voters is a dismal 36%. 49%, including 21% of Democrats and 45% of Independents, disapprove of the President’s job performance. Senator Cory Booker is 8 points below the magic number of 50% that an incumbent needs to be comfortable in a reelection race. Those are the kind of numbers any opposition party/candidate would pray for 8 weeks before an election.

Confronted with independent polling data that shows him to be in a surprisingly tight 7-10 point race against Republican nominee for U.S. Senate Jeff Bell, Booker has labeled his opponent a “right-wing ideologue,” according to a report on PolitickerNJ.Booker beat former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan for the job of filling the late Senator Frank Lautenberg’s term last October by only 11 percent.

I don’t think we need to send any more right-wing ideologues down to the U.S. Senate. I think we need to send bridge builders to get Congress moving again,” said Booker, the former Newark mayor, said.

Booker touted the work he has done with Republicans in Congress, including such bridge builders as Senators Rand Paul and Marco Rubio to PolitickerNJ, as evidence that he will break the partisan gridlock in Washington.

On his website, Bell says he’s pro-life, pro-traditional marriage and pro-religious freedom. He’s against Internet gambling and drug legalization. Some would say those positions make him a right-wing radical.

In the March Monmouth/APP poll, 55% of NJ voters said Booker deserves to be reelected. Today, only 44% say the former Newark Mayor deserves his own six year term in Washington. Booker was elected last October to fill the remainder of the late Senator Frank Lautenberg’s term. He faces off with Republican Jeff Bell in November.

Booker would beat Bell easily if the election where today, 43%-23%, but 15% say they would vote for a third party candidate and 17% are unsure. But the vast majority of voters, 82%, don’t know enough about Bell for express a favorable or unfavorable opinion of him. The GOP nominee for U.S. Senate against Bill Bradley in 1978, Bell scored a surprise victory in the GOP primary for Senate last month. Of those who do know enough about Bell to express an opinion, the overwhelming impression, 2-1, is favorable.

Bell defeated the last Republican U.S. Senator from New Jersey, Clifford Case, in 1978 GOP primary and lost the general election to Bill Bradley, a Rhodes Scholar and famous NBA basketball star. This year he will take on Booker, a Rhodes Scholar and famous social media star.

Bell did not participate in any of the Republican County conventions this year. He has won the nomination without any county “Party Lines” on the primary ballot.

Bell sent out mail that Republican primary voters are used to receiving and he advertised MMM.

Follow Jeff Bell on twitter. He has 175 followers to Booker’s 1.47 million.

Several MMM readers have asked me to endorse of a U.S. Senate candidate to take on Senator Cory Booker. I can’t endorse, or vote for, any of the four candidates who are on the ballot this Tuesday.

I’m writing in Joe Kyrillos on Tuesday. If this post goes viral, Joe Kryillos could be the U.S. Senate Republican nominee on Tuesday night. That’s how bad the U.S. Senate primary campaign has been. Booker would then have a fight on his hands. Share this post.

None of the four candidates on the ballot can make Booker break a sweat this fall.

None of the candidates on the ballot have raised enough money for a county freeholder race, never mind a statewide race for U.S. Senate. Booker has spent over $12 million on his re-election bid since the first of the year. He had $2.9 million in cash on hand as of May 14.

State Senator Joe Kyrillos, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in 2012, has refunded more money to his federal donors this year that any of the current Republican candidates have raised.

As rising political star Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) prepares for an uncontested primary, the four Republicans auditioning to oppose him remain far from the spotlight. They are not complete unknowns. One was prominent in politics long ago. Two have been…

Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore told MMM that he is actively encouraging Chris Isola, a declared candidate for the CD-3 GOP nomination, to seek the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate instead.

Isola, of Malton in Burlington County, is close to making a decision, according to Gilmore.

The Ocean County GOP’s screening committee endorsed former Randolph Mayor Tom MacArthur to replace Congressman Jon Runyan in the House of Representatives last weekend. Gilmore’s committee interviewed Murray Sabrin and Jeff Bell for the Senate nomination on Saturday but did not select a candidate. “There are two other candidates we want to interview and a fifth who I want to get in, Chris Isola,” Gilmore said after Governor Chris Christie’s Town Hall meeting in Toms River.

Isola’s LinkedIn profile lists his profession as “Candidate at 113th United States Congress.” A U.S. Marine Corp veteran, Isola served in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Upon his honorable discharge in 2005 Isola entered the financial services industry.